


Ni Kyr’tal Gai Sa’ad

by CelestialHeavens1



Series: Aliit (Family) [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Clone Wars era, F/M, Found Families, Gen, Mandalorian Culture, Post-Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Pre-Star Wars: The Clone Wars, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 13:44:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12013995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelestialHeavens1/pseuds/CelestialHeavens1
Summary: Anakin and Padmé bond with their new son. Anakin realizes that having a kid is not nearly as easy as his mother made it seem.





	1. Chapter 1

Ni Kyr’tal Gai Sa’ad

“I know your name as my child.”

The Mandalorian Adoption Vow

* * *

Chapter 1  
It was strange having a child around. At the Temple, Anakin had been banned from the crèche by the crèche masters after he had gotten way too attached to a couple of the younglings. Rather than let him work through his attachment issues, it was better to cut it off completely, so it'd be like an old wound that never healed.

Like his mother.

He resented that the Council had banned him from speaking to her. He hated that the Masters had told Padmé not to worry about her ten years before when she had asked after Master Qui-Gon’s funeral. He was angry that they had made it sound like they would free her to Padmé, rather than tell her the truth. She had been surprised to find out that his mother had still been enslaved until Cliegg Lars had freed her.

“Hey!” Boba yelled at him. “You've got to use the controller to shift! You can't just run into walls.”

He had no idea where Padmé had found the hologame at such short notice. It had appeared after dinner the first night as if by magic, so probably one of her handmaidens had gotten it or maybe Threepio. Since they had arrived on Coruscant, Boba had become slightly addicted to the game.

But Padmé had firmly set the rule that he could only play the game after lunch and before dinner and that he had to do other stuff before he could play. When they, or rather she, enrolled him in school, he wouldn’t be allowed to play it before his homework was done. It was probably going to be one of the holoschools that she had been researching. Something about good reviews and highly individualized attention. The kid had moped slightly at that and then went back to kicking Anakin’s ass in the game.

They had also discussed how she was going to publicly adopt Boba. He was a war orphan, who’s father had been killed by the Jedi. Boba was quick to point out that if she called him a war orphan, her popularity in the Senate might go up. They had spent another hour trying to reassure him that they weren’t adopting him to better Padmé’s political career. Though after the announcement, three Senators who had been strictly absolutists were now supporting legislative proposals that Padmé had written in concerns to the people on the planets most affected by the war.

Padmé was curled on the shorter sofa, watching them with an amused look on her face rather than working on the datapad filled with notes for the next day. She had that look a lot lately. It was contentment, he liked to think. There was so little to be happy about since the war had started and she was so stressed with work that it was nice to see her content.

He tried to shift, but the controller wasn’t sensitive enough. The podracer crashed again. “Karking poodoo!”

“Anakin!” Padmé scolded and then glanced towards Boba.

“That’s okay,” the boy said, not moving his eyes from the game. “I’ve heard worse. My dad used to bring me to Tatooine and Nal Hutta sometimes.”

Padmé didn’t seem like she was thrilled with that idea. She had already become hopelessly attached to the boy. Their boy.

Their son.

It seemed strange to think of Boba that way. He was still kind of getting used to thinking of Padmé as his wife. But it was almost a comforting thought, that if something were to happen to him, if he was to leave the Jedi, he had a family to return to.

“Flying the real thing is better,” he grumbled, trying to shift after the game reset. He was reacting before the obstacles showed on the screen and it kept causing the system to crash.

Boba’s racer crossed the finish line and he turned to Anakin, eyes wide. “You’ve podraced? I thought it was illegal.”

“Not out in Hutt Space. I won the Boonta Eve Classic when I was nine.” Padmé made an amused sound, but Boba was staring at him with that awed look he had at the orphanage.

“No way! My dad always said humans couldn’t podrace. Something about reflexes and limbs.” He crossed his arms and pouted. “I guess he was just saying that so I wouldn’t do it.”

Anakin was sure the look his wife was giving him translated into she was going to murder him if he gave the ten-year-old any more dangerous ideas. It was bad enough telling him he could be her bodyguard and had given him a blaster. But podracing…

“Uh…” he started, not sure how to fix that.

“I die a little more inside every time I have to watch you race, Ani,” his mother’s voice echoed in his ears. She said it before every race, but he could remember the way she had said it after he had crashed Watts’s racer. Terrified at how she might have lost him. Just because he had tried to save the pod.

He hadn’t understood the fear at the time. But there was something in him that clenched tightly at the thought of Boba jumping on a podracer and crashing the way he had. Everyone said he was lucky to have walked away.

“Yeah. He was right about that,” he finished lamely.

Padmé was wincing, eyes shut like it was a disaster she just couldn’t watch.

“But you did it!” Boba insisted. “And you were nine! I’m ten. I’m practically an adult. When the rest of the clones are ten, they get shipped off to the front.”

He and Padmé exchanged glances. They heard about the accelerated aging, but there was something very wrong about using people in battle who were only about the age of the boy sitting next to him.

“The clones on the front are only ten?”

“Don’t try and change the subject. I want to podrace!”

Anakin put his arm around his son’s shoulders, bringing him close. “Well, it really isn’t something humans can do.”

“But you did it!”

“But I’m only half human.” It was something that he barely acknowledged. It had been confirmed when he had first entered the Temple, but he had asked the Healers to take it off any of his files that it wasn’t completely necessary. Like he needed another reason to be singled out by other Initiates at the time and all personal files in the Temple were public.

That sated Boba slightly, enough to drop the subject of podracing. Of course, it did get another topic going. “What’s your other half?”

Anakin groaned.

 

He probably should have expected that he’d be missed sooner or later. Sooner came in the form of a comm call from Obi-Wan, two days into his leave. The man had his arms crossed and was glaring from the other end of the holo.

“Any particular reason why Longshot has been covering for you?”

He stayed silent. He didn’t want to get the clone in trouble.

“Anakin,” the tone was warning. “Where exactly have you been for the last three days?”

“Technically, the last two I’ve been on leave and I wasn’t ordered to report to the Temple, so-”

He cut himself short as Obi-Wan continued to glare at him, arms crossed tighter, looking highly disappointed.

“And the day before that?”

“A rescue mission. Intel brought it up. I thought you assigned it to me.” There. That was vague enough. From Obi-Wan’s look, the other man knew it was a lie.

His master gave up finally and sighed. “I hope whatever it was was worth it.”

He glanced past the holotable to where his son was currently losing to his wife at dejarik. He also didn’t seem to realize that she was about to beat him.

“It was. It definitely was.”

Obi-Wan frowned, then nodded. “I’ll be back on Coruscant tomorrow. I expect you to be there as well.”

His master hung up and Anakin stood, stretching. He moved over to sit behind Padmé, wrapping his arms around his wife and kissed her neck. Boba made a face, but otherwise stayed quiet.

“Anything important?” she asked.

“He wanted to know where I was.” It felt a bit like he wasn’t trusted to go off on his own. But he was just a padawan and orders were orders. Still, it sat bitterly in his gut, especially the look of disappointment that his master had perfected so well just for him.

Padmé gave him a pointed look. She was waiting for him to continue. He sighed.

“I didn’t tell him anything.”

“Why not?” That came from Boba.

“Because Jedi aren’t supposed to get married or have families.”

“That’s stupid. ‘Jetiise cuyir di’kute,’” he muttered. “That’s what my dad always used to say. I think he was right.”

He wasn’t sure what Boba had said, but he was sure it wasn’t positive. He exchanged a glance with Padmé. They were going to have to learn Mando’a, just so they could reprimand Boba when he said something he shouldn’t in a language they didn’t understand.

“Your move,” Boba said.

Padmé sighed and moved a piece. He frowned when he realized he was going to lose no matter what he did. Anakin chuckled at the look on the kid’s face.

“That’s why I never play dejarik with a politician,” he told the boy as seriously as he could. Padmé shoved at his shoulder, giving him a playful glare. He nudged her back. “Come on. I think I saw there were some good holomovies on the net.”

It was nice, more peaceful than the Jedi Temple was now. Boba was sitting on one side of the couch, but for someone as small as he was, he had managed to take up nearly the entire thing. Padmé was curled into his other side, head on his shoulder with his arm around her.

This right here, this must be what peace feels like, Anakin thought, feeling more content than he could remember feeling in a long time.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan and Anakin finally have that talk.

It was a loud, obnoxious knocking on the apartment door that woke Anakin the next morning. It might have been later than morning, considering daylight was streaming in at full blast and Padmé was absent from her spot beside him. His right shoulder had also lost feeling, because Boba had decided at some point that it was the perfect spot for his left foot to go. He was sure the kid wouldn’t be happy when he woke up with that kink in his neck.

“Master Kenobi!” he heard Threepio’s voice exclaim, “Mistress Padmé is not in right now, but I could-”

Anakin jolted up. It was only sheer luck that from his spot on the couch he was obscured from the front door. He was probably not supposed to be sleeping in senators’ apartments, especially not with dead bounty hunters’ kids sleeping halfway on top of him.

“Yes, thank you,” his master’s voice came and he debated how bad it would be if he jumped out of the window. “I’m actually here to see Anakin.”

“Oh yes, of course. Master Ani. He’s right this way, sir.”

Anakin closed his eyes. He was going to disassemble Threepio and sell him for scrap.

“I know you’re awake,” Obi-Wan said in his ‘Anakin, I’m annoyed with you’ voice. 

Anakin breathed out and opened his eyes slowly. “Perhaps we should speak outside,” he said, glancing at his sleeping son. 

He led Obi-Wan to the balcony with a familiarity he was sure his master noted. He seemed displeased and Anakin wasn’t surprised by that. After all, this confirmed that when Obi-Wan had told Anakin to break off any relationship with Senator Amidala after Geonosis, he had lied afterwards by saying he had.

He closed the doors behind them, hoping to muffle their conversation from waking Boba. “I take it you and the Senator are still engaging in a relationship.” He stayed silent. What could he honestly say in this situation? He hadn't planned for it, had expected to be back at the Temple before Obi-Wan came looking for him. He hadn't actually expected the man to notice he was missing from the Temple and search for where he was.

“And if I said I was just babysitting?” Anakin finally replied, though he was sure his words rang untrue in the Force.

“You, who doesn't like children, is babysitting?” He didn't correct the older man. He would not get into that one. “You flinch every time any Initiate comes up to us, but the minute it's for Senate Amidala, you are prepared to skip out of your responsibilities.”

Anakin gritted his teeth. “The Republic killed his father and then abandoned him. I'm sorry I left a day early, but I wasn't going to leave him there. Or are the sins of the father supposed to be passed down to the child? Should I have left Boba to starve and grow to hate the Republic and not trust anyone ever again? And so what if I knew that Senator Amidala was perhaps the only other person in the entire galaxy who cared what happened to him?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Didn't we have a responsibility to him, after Geonosis?” 

Obi-Wan frowned. “He fought against us there and on Kamino. That makes him a Separatist. Our enemy,” the other man reminded as if Anakin could forget who the Separatists were.

“He's a child!” He countered, “One who hasn't exactly seen any of the good the Republic has done. He grew up on the Outer Rim, watching the worlds the Republic forgot. That'll shape anyone's view as to why the Republic and the Order might possibly be the bad guys. I'm sure watching Master Windu behead his father didn't help.”

He didn’t mention his own childish hopes he had clung to upon seeing Master Qui-Gon with his lightsaber that first time and the crushing disappointment that followed learning that the Jedi didn’t care about the slaves of Tatooine. The Republic didn’t care either. He could imagine how it was for Boba. He might not have outright called the clones his family, but the rest of the clones called each other brother. The Republic bred his family to fight in a war for a government under which they had no rights, weren’t even considered sentient beings. Boba wasn’t considered a sentient.

He hadn’t been considered sentient when he had been a slave. It wasn’t a far jump in his mind to call the clones slaves. He felt vaguely ill at the thought. He was willing working for slavers. 

“Mace was doing what needed to be done.” 

“Was it though?” His voice was quiet when he spoke. He wasn’t entirely sure his master heard him. He made no acknowledgement of his words. 

“Why didn’t you tell me what you were going to do?” Obi-Wan asked him, his voice just as soft.

How could he have told him? Perfect Obi-Wan, the Council’s golden boy. Anakin knew what his answer would have been before Longshot had even spoken up about going after Boba.

Anakin raised an eyebrow and glanced at his master. “And give you the chance to say no?” Anakin sighed, running his hands through his hair as he looked out across Coruscant. The traffic was heavy, as it always was at that time of day. It wasn’t even lunch time yet, but so many people took an early lunch. “Any time I’ve said something about helping someone who needed it, someone who wasn’t part of whatever mission we were on, you told me that I need to let go, the dreams will pass, ignore my instincts, ignore the Force screaming in my head-” Anakin cut off and turned away, trying to regain control of his temper. He breathed in deeply and released it, clutching the railing of the balcony tightly. “I saw a chance to make a difference for a change and I took it. I won’t apologize for that.”

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan voice had turned disapproving again. “You’re acting like a child about this whole thing.” Anakin clenched his jaw, but didn’t say anything. “I’ve never told you not to help.”

“No?” He turned, his anger flaring, “When my mother was being tortured for over a month, you told me to ignore my dreams because they would pass. But they didn’t and she died.”

He didn’t say how every time he closed his eyes, he saw her body in his arms, heard her labored gasps. He didn’t mention how good it had felt to release his rage through action, to hurt those who had taken her from him, or how ashamed it made him feel after the fact. 

At this, at least, Obi-Wan looked down. Anakin could feel him through their bond, a deep ache that felt a little too much like guilt. “I’m sorry about your mother.” He had the good sense to not ask why Anakin hadn’t told him about her death before now. For that, he was glad. The whole thing was still too fresh in his mind.

They stood in silence for a long moment, before Obi-Wan broke it again.

“What exactly is going on between you and the Senator?” Anakin looked up at his master, ready to deny everything, when the other man spoke again. “And before you say nothing, you're at her apartment instead of the Temple. You're wearing Nubian garments, the kind that their nobility wears.” Anakin glanced down at the soft fabric. He had forgotten he was wearing it. It had been a gift from Padmé to make him feel comfortable in the apartment. He hadn't exactly expecting Obi-Wan to just show up there in the middle of the day.

“I-” he hesitated, but something in the Force seemed to prod him forward, “Padmé and I are married.”

Obi-Wan was silent. He really couldn't be too surprised about that. The other man was a Jedi through and through. He couldn't understand attachments.

“I see,” he said, when he finally responded, and the was quiet again. Anakin shifted. He was feeling all of thirteen again after getting into fights with the other Initiates and Padawans. “If I hadn't come here today, would you have told me?”

Anakin studied the other man’s face. He knew the answer Obi-Wan probably wanted, that yes he was going to tell him, but instead, he told him the truth. “No.” 

He knew almost the minute the word left his lips that it was the wrong thing to say. Now that he knew that though, his brain wasn’t working well enough to figure out how to correct it. The hurt that had flashed over his master’s face was gone as fast as it had appeared, hidden behind his negotiator’s mask. It resonated over their bond and he could feel the sharp pain that accompanied it. The worse part was he didn’t even feel bad about saying it. He felt free.

He had to fix this before it got too far. He shook his head. “We haven't told anyone.” Anakin glanced away. He couldn’t watch his master’s face when as he said his next part. Whatever disappointment Obi-Wan felt at him revealing his marriage, it would be worse after this. “I plan to leave the Order after the war.”

And there it was. Sharp, stinging, like a vibroblade had been shoved through his chest. He risked a glance at Obi-Wan, but his master wasn’t looking at him. Perhaps couldn’t look at him. Probably disillusioned by his failure of a padawan.

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan’s voice was pained when he finally spoke. 

“I love her.” And there was the base of the issue. He would have to leave the Order at some point because he was breaking the Code.

He knew what was said about him when he wasn’t around. The others his age hated him. He was too powerful, was taken as a padawan too young, and shouldn’t have even been accepted to the temple. His age mates told him when he was thirteen that there was something wrong with him, because no padawan was assigned to a master. A master choses their padawan. But Obi-Wan hadn’t chosen him.

And that didn’t even factor in the time he had overheard Obi-Wan tell Bant that he had only taken Anakin on because Master Qui-Gon had asked him to with his dying breathes. That only seemed to be proof positive of what his age mates had whispered to him between class periods and practice sessions.

 _So he’ll be rid of me then_ , Anakin thought bitterly, _After ten years he can finally pick a padawan he actually wanted._

But then Obi-Wan’s hand curled around his arm, the flesh and blood one, and squeezed comfortingly, pushing away the doubts.

“I know.” He sighed. “And I understand, perhaps more than you think.” Anakin looked up at him. _Obi-Wan? Perfect Obi-Wan?_ Anakin wondered. “There was a woman who if she had asked, I would have left the Order in a heartbeat. If she came to me today and asked, I still would.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“She never asked. And I fear I would only endanger her if I was to leave and pursue a relationship with her.” Obi-Wan had enemies, yes, but not enough that Anakin would have though he’d be worried about endangering her. He didn’t worry about putting Padmé in the line of fire, though perhaps that was more because she didn’t need him to put herself there.

“Please don't tell the Council about us.”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “They won't hear about it from me.” 

At this, the fear that had been clenching so tightly in his chest released and he breathed out deeply, giving Obi-Wan a grateful smile. 

“Now, why I was looking for you in the first place,” his master stated again, back to business as usual as if they hadn’t just had a heartfelt conversation. “The Council has agreed to knight you. You’ll be getting your own command.”

“So they’re splitting us up then?”

Obi-Wan laughed. “No, at least not for all missions. They’ve agreed that we’re too good of a team to split up forever.” He patted Anakin on the shoulder. “Why don’t you put some actual clothes on and we’ll head over?”

Anakin glanced back towards the couch through the glass. Boba’s foot was no longer visible and he had the sneaking suspicious that the boy was spying on them.

He made a small gesture with his finger, pulling the curtain on the other side back. Sure enough, Boba was there, Jango Fett’s helmet on. Just the day before, the kid had been showing off the speaker that amplified voices even through walls and windows and the rangefinder that could see targets several kilometers away. Anakin crossed his arms as he glared down at his son. The boy was smart enough to take the helmet off and head towards his room, hopefully to get dressed.

“We’ll have to stop by the Senate first to drop him off with Padmé. I hate to think what he’ll do if he’s left to his own devices.”

“Oh dear,” Obi-Wan muttered, stroking his beard, “It’s worse than I thought. You might actually be on the way to becoming a mature, responsible adult.”

He glared at his master. “Very funny.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hurricane prepping here. This gives me something else to think about.
> 
> The way I figure it, the Senate probably has three main political groups. Various Star Wars material has stated Padmé and Bail are both Loyalist Senators. Based on their views shown in the Star Wars Universe, I formed a rough idea of what the three groups would be.  
> Loyalist - freedom, but not at the sake of security. Follows the constitution. The Delegation of 2000. Is a mix between what we think of as conservative and liberal. We know Padmé supported a free market economy and policies that benefitted the people who weren't just senators and wealthy, such as providing electricity and water for Coruscant's citizens. Padmé, Bail, Mon Mothma, etc.  
> Centrist - security, but not at the sake of freedom. Could sway either way.  
> Absolutist - security over freedom. All of Palpatine's supporters. Probably borderlines fascism. The wealthy get wealthier, the poor get poorer. Supports creating more clones. The senator from Kamino.


End file.
